Lately there has been an explosion of ER hoppers in our ER. What are ER hoppers? They are those patients who yesterday, two days ago or whatever went to another ER but felt the need to come to our ER this time. They have various reasons for doing such an idiotic thing. The seven deadly sins. Among them:
1) I didn't get any pain meds for my neck injury from an MVA 2 weeks ago at the other hospital and I'm hoping you will be nicer.
2) I had surgery last week at another hospital, now I am having problems, and your hospital is closer.
3) I didn't like the way they treated me at XYZ hospital.
4) The wait was way too long at the other place
5) I want a second opinion.
6) They didn't do anything for me over there.
7) Family is not happy with care of other doctor, hospital, etc.
ER hoppers are sometimes dumb enough to tell us they were at another hospital. Then there are those who don't. They think we won't find out. But BEWARE, these days we can see if you have been to another hospital in our system. We are also connected to other hospitals as part of a network that shares info, with your kind permission of course.
When I ask people why they didn't go back to the hospital that treated them before, did surgery on them, they are often offended, like I shouldn't ask that. It should be okay to come to a hospital that has no records of your surgery, history, etc. Sorry if I think thats stupid.
Uh, that's called "Cross-Pollination" :-)
ReplyDeleteLove,
Nurse K @ Crass-Pollination
What's lame is when I pick up agency shifts and see the same person at three different hospitals in a row or something. It's happened. I always make it a point to introduce myself to them at each hospital.
ah yes....cross pollination...
ReplyDeleteI love it when they come in still wearing their bracelet from the other hospital!
ReplyDeleteHello There,
ReplyDeleteI would of sent this via email but the email you have written isn't working for some odd reason.
My name is Sally and I am a student at Green River Community college. Right now I am working on an a paper for English about our ideal careers, my ideal career being an ER nurse. I find your blog post very insightful, and am wondering if you'd allow me to use your blog as a resource.
If allowed to do so, I was hoping you could help me with the apa citation. I would need the author's name, but only your last name and first initial.
I understand the need for privacy, so if you can, you can get back to me through ironicshorti@gmail.com. Apologizes for the unprofessional email, but I'm a bit worried putting out my work one.
If you can get back to me as soon as possible with your response, I'd be really thankful.
-Sally